IT’S STILL June, says Joe Torre, who passed on a late opportunity to move up Mr. Sunshine, Randy Johnson, into Jaret Wright’s spot tonight. This is not because the Yankees manager doesn’t want to sweep the Red Sox but actually because he does. Johnson’s ERA is 5.33.

Wright’s is 4.12.

We can’t definitively declare the day Wright gives a team a better shot than Johnson a sad one for the Yankees, not when it’s the Red Sox who face leaving town 2 ½ games behind. Nor may it be quite fair to consider this a slap in the face of a caliber generated by a big Dontrelle Willis-type windup (with an accompanying Juan Marichal-sized leg kick in the groin).

But seeing as Torre could have seized last night’s rainout as opportunity to match Johnson against Curt Schilling in an attempt for the first series sweep by either team against the other since 2004, Torre’s decision, or lack of the same, is reflective of The Towering Inferno’s fall.

Based on improved results in his last two starts, Johnson may be rising again, but at age 42, just how far remains problematical.

What he has left remains a question that won’t get old, unlike Johnson, and that flat, fat, slider. One game between two of the lights-out pitchers of the generation wasn’t going to definitively tell us which has dimmed the most. But since both Schilling and Johnson made their reputations elevating for special occasions, this sure would have been more fun to watch than bocce or shuffleboard, pastimes more appropriate for persons of their age.

“You know what, Curt Schilling doesn’t have to be as good as he was [because] there is so much aggressiveness in what he does,” said Torre. “He’s going to stay out there until you drag him off the mound.

“Pedro Martinez isn’t throwing as hard as he used to, either. But they still make you beat them.” Pedro, who hasn’t won in his last seven starts more by reason of circumstance than ineffectiveness, nevertheless wore down as last season went along. Meanwhile, Johnson still took the ball every fifth day on the way to 18 wins, only one fewer than the career high of Mike Mussina, currently pitching mostly like the lightsout guy he only sporadically has been throughout a fine career.

Josh Beckett’s ERA is 5.27. Roy Halladay, whose Blue Jays are only three back in loss column, is the only are-we-going-to-beluckyenough-to-miss-himthistrip starter in this race.

Asked if you can win without one, Torre said “sure you can,” perhaps because he knows that he must.

“Having that one lights-out guy is a plus and a minus,” he said. “Normally you don’t go into long losing streaks if you have that guy.

“The minus is what happens to the rest of the rotation when he happens to lose that day.” Which brings us to the place the Red Sox are tonight, with Schilling clearly in classic stopper’s position, opportunity knocking to stick a sock, bloody or otherwise, into talk of his decline.

Coming off an 8-8 season in 2005 that included considerable bullpen time designed to ease his re-entry from ankle surgery, he seems increasingly like the old Schill. Certainly he appeared to be a reasonable facsimile in beating the Yankees two weeks ago at Fenway, scattering five hits over eight innings.

Still, when Terry Francona pushed the 39year-old to 133 pitches on April 25 at Cleveland, Schilling’s work for the next three starts suffered.

Presumably, the manager won’t make that mistake again. Preservation becomes a key, another reason Torre was happy to give Johnson an extra day.

The Red Sox remain equally happy to take their chances with Schilling, who still throws consistently in the low nineties and can still take it up to 94 when needed. And the Red Sox do need to see that kind of reach-deep effectiveness from somebody, not that they will be alone in that regard amongst the two teams on the field tonight.